Video: Bengal tiger savages circus trainer in front of audience

A video shows a Bengal tiger attacking and killing its trainer during a circus performance in Mexico. The footage shows the trainer, American Alexander Crispin, 35, performing in the ring with two tigers during a show for Circo Suarez in Sonora State.

Warning: Graphic video

As the trainer circles the animals, one of them suddenly lunges at him and brings him down.The video shows the tiger as it pounces on the trainer inflicting fatal wounds with its claws and jaws while horrified spectators watched helplessly. According to the Mexican news agency Notimex, Crispin suffered neck injuries from bites and scratches.

A spectator at the circus filmed the tiger attacking its trainer during a performance at the Circus Suarez in the city of Hermosillo, Mexico on Saturday.

Crispin was rushed to the Red Cross hospital Huatabampo, Sonora where he died, reportedly after suffering from hypovolemic shock.

The video shows horrified spectators running out of the tent while two circus employees attempt to rescue Crispin from the tiger that held him to the ground. The Daily Mail reports that rescuers presumably killed the tiger in the attempt to free Crispin and save his life.

The circus workers attacked the tiger, beating it repeatedly and possibly killing it.

Some YouTube users seemed upset with reports that the tiger was killed. They blamed the trainer for the accident.

According to the Daily Mail, the Mexican authorities summoned Valente Malon, the owner of the circus, to testify at the Public Ministry in Etchojoa where the circus performed at the Plaza Indigena.

This is not the first time that a tiger has savaged its trainer at a circus, the Daily Mail reports. In October 2003, a performer at the Siegfried & Roy Las Vegas show Roy Horn, was savaged by a seven-year-old tiger named Montecore. Horn recovered after being in critical condition at the hospital for several weeks.

The Suarez Brothers Circus has featured tiger acts for many years. Miguel Suarez founded the circus in 1853.

Bengal tigers are nocturnal hunters in the wild, and prey on buffalo, deer and wild pigs. The animals avoid humans and do not usually attack them. But occasionally, an old or infirm individual turns into a man-eater, and wild life officials will have to put it down.